My name is Linda Smith. I am from England. I am in China with my parents now. I can speak Chinese.

 Now I am a student in a middle school in Yichang. I have an American（美国的） friend in class. Her name is Jane, and she is twelve. Her telephone number is 630-2304. Her birthday is on April 5th. Our birthdays are on the same day but in different months (不同月). Jane is a tidy girl but I am not. I always put the things everywhere and can’t find my things. Also, she is good at Chinese. At school, we always learn Chinese together(在一起), and she helps me with my Chinese. After school, we always play sports. We can play volleyball, baseball and tennis. We are sports girls. We are good friends, too.

Rosie Bridge School 18 May

English: fun for life 

English week at Rosie Bridge School 

Last week, students at Rosie Bridge School worked hard to make their English Week a big success.

There was an English book fair in the library and a treasure hunt. Some students put on an English play. Other students took part in an English singing competition.

There was also a speaking competition. The students had to speak on a topic in English for two minutes. We spoke to the winner, Henry.“I’m so happy that I won” he said.“I advised people to speak slowly. If they want to be good public speakers, they’d better speak clearly and confidently.”We also spoke to several other students about English Week. One of them was Amy.“I really enjoyed English Week. It gave me a chance to learn new words. In my opinion, every school should have an English Week. It’s well worth doing,” she said. On the last day of English Week, the head teacher gave a speech to the whole school. He gave students some suggestions on how to improve their English.“You should communicate in English with your friends whenever you can. You should read English books and magazines, and watch English television programmes. Above all, you should enjoy English!”he said.

  Little Tommy lived in a village with his grandpa. Each morning Grandpa was up early sitting at the kitchen table reading his book. One day Tommy asked, "Grandpa! I try to read the book just like you but I don't understand it, and I forget what I do understand as soon as I close the book. What's the ____(1)____ of reading then?"

    Grandpa pointed to an old coal basket in the comer and replied, "Take this basket down to the river and bring me back a basket of water." Tommy did as he was told. Of course, he brought back an  ____(2)____ basket.

    Grandpa laughed and said, "You'll have to move a little faster next time."

    Tommy tried again. This time he ran faster  ____(3)____ the result was the same. "Grandpa, it was ____(4)____to carry water in a basket."

    "Tommy, I don't think you are trying hard enough. Why do you ____(5)____so easily?"

    With lots of questions in mind, Tommy decided to have a last try. This time he did it even ____(6)____, but no matter how hard he tried, it still made no  ____(7)____.

    "See, Grandpa, it's useless!" Tommy shouted when he got into the house.

    "So you think it's useless?" the old man said," Look at the basket."

    Tommy looked at the basket and for the first time  ____(8)____ that it was different. Instead of a dirty old coal basket, it was  ____(9)____, inside and out.

    "Tommy, that's what happens when you read books. You might not understand or  ____(10)____ everything, but when you read it, you will be changed, inside and out."

People eat different things in different parts of the world.

In south China we eat rice every day. Sometimes we eat it two or three times a day, for breakfast, lunch and supper. We usually eat it with fish, meat and vegetable.

The Japanese eat rice, too. They also eat a lot of fish. They sometimes eat raw（生的）fish. In Africa, maize（玉米）is the most important food. People there make maize into flour（面粉）.From this flour they make different kinds of bread and cakes.

In western（西方的）countries such as Britain, Australia and the U.S.A, the most important food is bread or potatoes. People there usually make their bread from wheat flour. They cook the potatoes in different ways. In England the most popular food is fish and chips. Sometimes people cook this food at home, but usually they buy it at the shop. They eat this food at home, in their work place, in the park or on the road. People call it "take-away" food.

Walking a few kilometers a day is normal. How about walking 30km? This is  (1)  students did at a Middle School Attached to Shandong University in Jinan.

    The students there hiked about 30km from school to a local mountain and back. The school has held hiking   (2)  since 2001 ,in order to   (3)   the students' bodies and minds.

    The trip   (4)  about nine and a half hours,and more than 700 students in Grade Eight took part in the hike. The trip started at 7: 30 a.m. and ended at 4: 30 p.m. on April 1st.

    "I felt a strong team spirit during this   (5)   experience," said Li Tao, one of the flag bearers(旗手) of the hike." When we fell behind others, strong students supported weak ones so that we could   (6)   the trip. Some of them helped me  (7)  the flag. I wouldn't have been  (8)   to finish the trip without their help. "

    I'm happy to learn the   (9)  of perseverance (坚持不懈), too, which will be very  (10)   in our future lives, "said Li.

Joe wanted a computer. He asked his    (1)    for the money and they said he must get it

himself. But how did he get it? He    (2)    about this when he walked home. Not many people wanted to asked children to work for them. Maybe he could take away    (3)   for the neighbors(邻居). But this was not winter. He had to wait a long time. He couldn’t cut grass for their gardens    (4)   he had no tools (工具) to do the work with.

Then he saw one of his    (5)   , Dick, who sits next to him, delivering (送) newspapers. “I could do that,” he thought, “   (6)   I could even get the computer right away. I could pay   (7)  

it a little each week.” He ran to catch up with Dick. Joe   (8)   him a lot of questions. He learned that it was   (9)   to get twenty-five dollars each week. He learned that the job   (10)   about three hours each night. Dick   (11)    him the phone number of the newspaper manager.

Joe almost flew home. After he had told his mother    (12)   he thought, she smiled    (13)  , “I think it is a   (14)    idea,” she said, “I’ll call the newspaper.”

“Wait, mum,” Joe said, “I’ll call him. After that, I’m going to be a   (15)   now.” Joe’s mother was very happy.

Life in the 22nd century will be different from life in the 21th century, because many changes will take place in the new century. But what will the changes be?

The population(人口) is   (1)   fast. There will be more and more people in the world and most of them will live   (2)   than before.   (3)   will be much smaller and more useful, and there will be at least one in every home. And computer studies will be one of the important subjects at   (4)  .

People will work fewer hours than they did in the 21th century, and they will have more free time for sports,   (5)   TV and traveling. Traveling will be more   (6)  . And many more people will go to other countries for holidays.

More land will be used for building new towns and houses. Then there will be less room for cows and sheep, so   (7)   will be more expensive. Maybe no one will eat it every day,   (8)   they eat more vegetables and fruit. Maybe people will be healthier.

Work in the future will be   (9)  , too. Dangerous and hard work will be done by robots(机器人).   (10)   of this, many people will not have enough work to do. This will be a problem.

In the 13th century, the famous Italian traveler, Marco Polo, traveled a long way to China. When he  (1)  in China, he saw many wonderful things. One of the things was that the  (2)  used paper money. In western countries, people did not use paper money  (3)   the 15th century.

    However, people in China began to use paper money in the 7th century. A Chinese man called Cai Lun invented (发明) paper almost 2,000 years ago. He then put these pieces of paper together and  (4)  them into a book.

    Now paper is made from trees. We  (5)  a lot of paper every day. If we keep on wasting (浪费) so   (6)   paper, there will not be any trees left on the earth. If there are no trees, there will be no paper. So  (7)  can we save paper? When we are taking notes, we can use  (8)   sides of every piece of paper. We can also use cotton handkerchiefs (手帕) and not paper ones. When we go shopping, we can use   (9)  paper bags. If the shopkeeper gives you a paper bag, we can save it and use it later. Everyone can help to save paper. If we all think carefully, we can help  (10)  trees. We should do it now, before it is too late.

We were very pleased with the photo competition. Compared with other years, we received many more photos. Even though all of the photos are excellent, we can't give prizes to everyone. There are four prizes, so read on to find out who the winners are.

   The person who won the prize of the “Most Beautiful Nature” photography is fifteen-year-old Li Wei. Li took photos of the mountains in Xiangshan Park. The park isn't far from his home, about 500 metres, and he knows it well.

   The photo we liked best in the “Historic China” group was taken by Zhao Min. Zhao is only 12 years old. Her photo is of Tian'anmen Square, the largest public square in the world. It's 880 metres from north to south and 500 metres wide at the northern end. Her photo shows the size and beauty of the square perfectly.

   The best photo in “Music” category was taken by He Zhong who is fourteen years old. His photo of this year's best band Crazy Feet shows the singer, Becky Wang, and the band playing at a concert in Shenzhen. He Zhong manages to show the movement and the sounds of this great new band, and the fun which their fans are having.

   A collection of photos called the “Many Faces of Our City” which features Beijing won the prize for the “Most Unusual” category. Three pupils at the same school worked on this entry. It includes photos of different parts of the city, old and new. It successfully shows the rich culture which makes Beijing so famous.

   Congratulations to our winners and thanks to everyone who entered the competition. We are very lucky that the famous photographer John William is in China to talk about his new book. He has agreed to present the prizes at the prize giving ceremony at the end of this month.